Gray & Yellow Lace Manicure

Tonight's mani was a quickie! My nails are going to get wrecked tomorrow so I played around with some of my new colours and plates. 

Colours used are NYC in Sidewalkers and Lexington Yellow. The gray had good, smooth coverage in two coats whereas the yellow was three coats and still a little streaky. I used wet n' wild in black creme for the stamping.  I used a born pretty stamping plate (item # 6455) for the lace details. 

I need more practice centering but I really liked the look of the lace down the centre of the nail! 

Hope you like it :)

xo Shawna 

My Nail Polish Organization

I was excited to be able to get out to Ikea today to pick up a Kallax insert for my Expedit shelf. (They recently changed the Expedit line to Kallax - It's slightly thinner and therefore uses less material = more eco conscious). I've been eyeing one since my polish collection started outgrowing my previous storage, shortly after I wrote the post on my polish stash!

It wasn't too difficult to put the unit together, although once I finished I realized I could have gotten use out of my fiancés power drill! Probably best I stayed away from the power tools, though - I'm definitely not handy. 

In the top drawer, I have all my nail art supplies. This consists of: my black & white polishes for stamping, my Ciate caviar beads, rhinestone wheel, nail wraps, nail decals, stamping plates & scrapers, brush set, dotting tool, orange wood cuticle pushers, feathers, files and a few other odds & ends. 

My polish drawer was loosely organized by colour. Base/ top coats and nail treatments in the back! 

There's a few other great storage solutions for polish from Ikea including the Helmer (the gold standard for polish collections, I think!) and the Alex. I would love a Helmer however there is just no where else to cram another storage unit in my condo! 

What's your storage look like? Do you organize by brand or by colour?

xo Shawna

Romantic Stripes & Sparkles

My friend and I are at a yoga retreat centre for a few days of R&R. Of course this means we brought a bunch of nail supplies (she's one of my few friends who shares my nail polish obsession!) and got painting on our first night here. I wasn't sure what I had in mind when we started, but I wanted to try my new essie "Mint Candy Apple" so I laid down a base of that. 2 coats was fairly opaque (not perfectly so) but enough! 

I tried a few rosettes but they were sad looking so I wiped that off and did accent nails in OPI "Panda-monium Pink" (one of my fave shades and sadly discontinued). 

I used my striping brush and dotting tool to make each nail different. The white is Ciate "Snow Virgin". My chevrons on the right hand are not nearly as straight! 

Lastly, the accent nails needed a little bling so I added some rhinestones from born pretty store and two coats of a Sally Beauty glitter, finished off with a coat of HK Girl. Done! I didn't love it at first but it's definitely grown on me. I love the romantic colour palette! 

Do you like to mix and match patterns or keep everything uniform?

xo Shawna  

Birds on a Wire Stamped Mani

Tonight's mani has booted out my Paris nails as my new favourite! As soon as I saw the Birds on a Wire on the MoYou Pro Plate #4 I knew it was a must have. The only thing that prevented me from using it earlier was a fear of the fine line work, so I wanted more practice first! 

First, I created a gradient with:

China Glaze - Naked

L'oreal - Orange You Jealous

Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue

I was going to use an Essie shade in lieu of Pacific Blue but the colour was just too sheer to be really noticeable and I wanted more.

Next, I used Wet n' Wild Black Creme for the stamping. I paired the delicate (illegible) text from the same plate with the bird image.

I absolutely love the way this one turned out. The ombre effect on my thumbs are less than perfect - I figure my thumbs are kind of like the first pancake - a write off. 

Do you have issues getting your thumbs sponged as nicely as the rest?

xo Shawna

Simple Duochrome & Teal French Manicure

I found a bottle of Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in my dollar store yesterday for a steal of $2, so I grabbed it. It looked pretty in the bottle, with a base of gold and a green colour shift. 

However, once I got it on the nails, the colour shift was practically nonexistent! The shade is "Plume". This swatch is two coats and you can see there is definite visible nail line.

So, this turned into the manicure I couldn't leave alone. First I added French tips in my new Rimmel "Do Not Disturb" teal. Then, I decided it was still too plain so I fully painted accent nails on each hand (ring finger on the left, index on the right). 

Lastly, this morning I still wanted more, so I added some Gold glitter top coat (Sally Beauty brand) and finally satisfied, finished off with HK Girl top coat! It's not my favourite manicure, but it has enough interest now for me to leave it alone for the rest of the weekend. 

Do you ever do a manicure you just can't leave alone? Do you wear it for a day or take it off immediately? 

xo Shawna

Blue Ombré Paris Stamped Mani

Yesterday, Shoppers Drug Mart had an amazing deal on Essie polish, which worked out to $4.50 a bottle in multiples of 2. So I grabbed 4 different shades - and since I bought them at two locations I didn't realize until after how similar they all are! You like what you like, right? They're gorgeous light blues, lavenders and teals. I'll have to do a swatch post soon!

I also managed to get my hands on a couple bottles of the original formula of Sally Hansen's "Pacific Blue". Being new to the nail art world, I've only just discovered this "holy grail" shade, and my first attempt at buying actually landed me the new formula. I didn't love the colour so I'll be returning the new versions. SDM's in Milton are a gold mine for the original, with 9 bottles between the two stores I visited - it doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of nail enthusiasts in Milton, or else they'd all be gone! 

On to today's mani. I used Essie "Lapiz of Luxury" as the base (one of my new shades) and sponged a gradient with "Pacific Blue". 

Lapiz of Luxury swatched. 

I love the way the ombré effect looks with these two shades! 

I used MoYou London Tourist plate 21, which has a definite Parisian theme. There are a ton of cute designs, so I chose one floral as the main design with two accent nails on each hand. 

Clearly, getting my stamps straight is something I need a little practice with! I don't mind too much, in particular I think the Eiffel Tower looks cute on a jaunty angle!

On my right hand, I love the little moustaches! 

Despite my lack of centering some of the images, I think this mani is my favourite so far. (Not that I have a whole lot to choose from!). I used Ciate "Snow Virgin" as the stamping colour, and of course topped it off with HK Girl Top Coat which is becoming a fast favourite.

Does your nail polish stash have all the colours of the rainbow, or do you tend to gravitate towards the same colour family?

xo Shawna

green mani Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone!

There is a green theme going around the nail instagram feed today, to support depression awareness in light of the recent passing of Robin Williams. If you search the hashtag #fightforlightandlive, you'll find a whole bunch of IG'ers who have painted their nails green today!

As I posted a few days ago on Facebook, I hope the positive that comes from the tragic event of a few days ago is to bring awareness to depression. If you are depressed, or even just not feeling like yourself and can't quite pinpoint it, you can ALWAYS ask for help - whether it be a family member or friend, or reaching out for support to a support line. Find a list of all the Canadian hotlines here.

To lighten things up, on to today's mani!

I've combined safari green with a leafy stamp, for a very nature inspired look!

The base colour is L'Oreal "Safari Chic". This was my first time using this new (to me) polish, and I was really impressed with the coverage of just one coat (as pictured). 

The white is Ciate "Snow Virgin". This is my first time using it to stamp, and again I'm impressed with the coverage from the polish. 

Don't be fooled by the bottle in the pic, I actually used HK Girl Top Coat. I had just packed away all my polish supplies when I redid the pics, and this bottle is being donated to my sister so it was readily available for a photo op!

Also, I am really having issues getting crisp photos, so hopefully you get the point. 

There you have it. Hope you had a great weekend!

xo Shawna

my nail polish stash

So I decided it would make sense to take stock of my collection to get a better idea of exactly what colours I have (and therefore, which I will need to round out the colour wheel for my nail art - I'm after grey and turquoise next!). Normally this storage bin just has all the bottles chucked in haphazardly, and things get buried at the bottom.. The other night I really wanted silver glitter and thought I didn't have any, but I found a mini bottle in there!

This is the whole collection, including 50 shades (that includes the glitters, etc), 7 base & top coats and nail treatments, one bottle of caviar, feathers, a set of nail wraps and my implements. I also have a bunch of nail decals in the mail from the born pretty store. 

A close up of all the colours. Mostly OPI & China Glaze, with a sprinkling of Color Club minis, L'Oreal, and a few random brands. 

These are my favourite shades in rotation. 

And all my nail treatments. My sister has just claimed my China Glaze top coat since she ran out, and I clearly have more than enough. 

What does your collection look like? Do you know how many colours you have?

xo

Shawna

(post contains affiliate link)

silver & roses nail stamping manicure

So, after my MoYou plates arrived last night I immediately set to work practicing. My first few attempts weren't great until I remembered reading somewhere it helps to prep a new stamper by lightly buffing the surface with a nail file. So, I did that and voila! Stamping magic was happening. I had a really hard time not only choose which image(s) to stamp for my first mani, but which colours. I settled on using my new shade "Butterfly Kisses" by L'Oreal (as pictured in yesterday's post) and stamping with my Sally Hansen "Hi-Ho Silver" that you may remember from my galaxy nails. 

I used two rose patterns from the MoYou Pro Plate 04 and alternated nails. One is a rose pattern and the other is the same pattern in the negative. 

It's really hard to capture the details with the silver being so reflective, but I love the way it turned out. The roses seem really delicate in the pink and silver shades. 

And of course, I topped it off with my new HK Girl topcoat. It's too early to make and solid judgements, but it definitely dried fast and didn't get any imprints when I went to bed later. (Conversely, I just had to chuck my old bottle of Seche as it's completely gummed. I considered buying a replacement bottle since I found it for about $6 at Winners, but decided it was unnecessary with having HK Girl). 

What do you think?

xo

Shawna

Nail Mail - MoYou London Stamping Plates!

So I've gone a little overboard the past week or two with online shopping, since I discovered the world of nail art and stamping specifically! The packages have already started to roll in. I'm really impressed with the shipping times of nail polish canada and MoYou London! I also snagged some awesome deals on L'Oreal polish at best buy online of all places, half of which shipped super quick and oddly the other half I'm still waiting for.

Here are the goodies! Top to bottom I have HK Girl Top Coat, which was shipped for free from Nail Polish Canada. It cost few dollars more than purchasing directly from the buyer, but the free shipping more than made up for the difference since I only wanted the one item. I've just used it for the first time so I don't have an opinion yet (other than it does seem to dry quickly!) but loads of other nail bloggers and 'grammers have raved about it, so I jumped on board. The L'Oreal polishes are Orange You Jealous, Butterfly Kisses and Because You're Worth It. I got 4 MoYou plates from different collections, as well as the XL double sided stamper. I think for my nail length, the XL is unnecessary but I liked the double sided-ness - it let me work back and forth before cleaning each side, so the stamping process seemed to flow more smoothly. Check out the plates up close. They are gorgeous!

Explorer Collection 21 

Princess Collection 09 

Pro Collection 04 

Tourist Collection 21

I'm curious to receive my stamper from the born pretty store, (affiliate link) to see how the firmer one compares to the squishy XL stamper. What stamping plates and stampers have you tried? What's your favourite brand?

xo
Shawna

silver galaxies nail art manicure

While I anxiously await all of my nail goodies from the born pretty store, I have been starting to get creative with my nail painting. Enter galaxy nails! I followed a nail tutorial from The Hunt. I decided to do one nail on each hand since it was my first attempt, and also to save time since I was focusing on getting my blog up and running tonight! 

Colours used:

Color Club: Poptastic collection (my minis are unlabelled); Nicole : My Lifesaver; Sally Hansen (Complete Manicure): Hi Ho Silver; ACo: Snowfall; Ciate - Chinchilla

Top coats: China glaze matte magic & No Chop Top Coat

I decided to use my new silver shade on all the other nails. Can I talk about how much I love this polish? It's Sally Hansen complete manicure in Hi-Ho Silver, and I snagged the bottle on clearance for $2 at Target tonight! One coat had great coverage but I did two coats anyways. It also served as the final touch on the accent nails since I somehow own no silver glitter polish (I must remedy that ASAP!)

I love the way they turned out and I can't wait to do a full mani using the technique.

Tell me, have you tried the galaxy nails technique before?

Have a great night!

(note, post contains affiliate links)

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my little corner of the web and my first blog post. I've always loved nail art and recently discovered the world that is nail blogging (and instagramming!). So I decided to join all the awesome bloggers and share my own inspirations and creations.

About me, I am in my late 20s and live outside of Toronto, Ontario. I have loved painting my nails since I was old enough, and used nail art as a way to break the ice when I moved schools in grade 7, so it's always been something I loved! I've also always had a little bit of a nail polish collection (keeping it around 30-40 shades by periodically destashing!) and thought nothing of it. I have just discovered a few awesome online nail supply stores so my collection of polish and nail art supplies will soon be rapidly expanding! More to come on that later.

Please comment and follow - I look forward to meeting you all! I'm also on instagram as @mynailsdid - see you there!

Shawna